Heroes' 'Mr. October' comes through again in KBO postseason

▲ Song Sung-mun of the Kiwoom Heroes rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the KT Wiz during the bottom of the fourth inning of Game 5 of the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Oct. 22, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Song Sung-mun of the Kiwoom Heroes celebrates his two-run home run against the KT Wiz during the bottom of the fourth inning of Game 5 of the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Oct. 22, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Kiwoom Heroes starter An Woo-jin pitches against the KT Wiz during Game 5 of the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Oct. 22, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Kiwoom Heroes starter An Woo-jin celebrates after winning the MVP award for the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason against the KT Wiz at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Oct. 22, 2022. (Yonhap)

baseball postseason-players

Heroes' 'Mr. October' comes through again in KBO postseason

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- For the Kiwoom Heroes, clutch performances by their No. 9 hitter provided nice bookends to their opening round victory over the defending champions KT Wiz in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.

Song Sung-mun, dubbed "Mr. October," lived up to his moniker once again Saturday, when he smacked a go-ahead, two-run home run off Wiz starter Wes Benjamin to put the Heroes up 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning in Game 5 of the best-of-five first round. The Heroes hung on to win 4-3 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul and punch a ticket to the next round against the LG Twins.

Song was the hero of Game 1, delivering two RBIs, including a tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, for an 8-4 victory.

But from Games 2 to 4, Song batted 1-for-10. He briefly moved up in the batting order before dropping down to the No. 9 spot for Saturday.

Facing a tough lefty in Benjamin, who'd blanked the Heroes for seven innings in Game 2, Song added another chapter to his growing postseason legacy with the homer.

With the Heroes trailing 2-1, Lee Ji-young opened that fourth inning with a double. But Benjamin struck out the next two batters, and things suddenly looked dire for the Heroes.

In came Song, who pounced on a 1-2 slider and sent it over the right field wall. Right fielder Kim Min-hyuck fooled thousands of Heroes fans at the dome, as he stopped at the warning track, as if he were ready to make the grab. Instead, the ball sailed over his head to give the Heroes a 3-2 lead.

The go-ahead shot made the winner out of Kiwoom starter An Woo-jin, who pitched six solid innings and struck out eight, and was named the MVP of the series.

He'd pitched six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts in a no-decision in Game 1. But An allowed a run right away in the first inning on Anthony Alford's RBI double.

Alford proved to be a thorn on An's side again in the third, when he smoked a solo home run for a 2-1 KT lead.

But once Song had staked him to a 3-2 lead, An dug deep and made the lead stand.

In the top sixth, Alford reached with an infield single off An's right arm. The right-hander stayed in the game but gave up a single, before a sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third with one out.

And that's when the fireballer reached back for some hard stuff. He struck out Hwang Jae-gyun fanning on a fastball clocked at 155 kilometers per hour (96.3 miles per hour). Then against Kim Min-hyuck, An threw four straight fastballs at 155 kph or 156 kph, and got him to ground out to shortstop.

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